How Fiber Contributes to Weight Loss

Fiber, also called roughage or bulk, is the term for the parts of plant foods that we cannot digest. Unlike proteins and fats, fiber cannot be digested and absorbed by your body, as it is composed of sugar and starch and passes unchanged through your stomach and intestines.

Fiber is classified into two types: soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber absorbs water and turns to a gel-like substance which traps food, sugars, cholesterol and fats in your stomach, leads them to your digestive tract and slows their absorption into your body.

Insoluble fiber, on the other hand, passes through your digestive system largely unchanged and helps it function better.

Because fiber just passes through your system, eating fiber-rich foods helps keep you feeling full longer and traps cholesterol and fats, helping you achieve weight loss and lower the risk of obesity, Dr. Joseph Mercola explains.

Aside from helping you manage your weight, a fiber-rich diet also:

• absorbs water and adds bulk to your stool to enhance intestinal health and regularity
• encourages the growth of beneficial bacteria (probiotics) in your intestinal tract, helping boost your immune system and overall wellness
• helps lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, certain cancers and diabetes
• slows down the absorption of sugar to improve your blood glucose

The National Fiber Council recommends a fiber consumption of at least 32 grams of fiber per day for a healthy adult. Unfortunately, most people aren’t getting enough fiber in their diet.

The average American barely consumes half of the recommended amount of fiber per day. Many are even clueless as to what fiber is. Fifty-three percent of Americans believe that steak is a good source of fiber when meat actually contains little to no dietary fiber, while 42 percent believe potato chips contain a significant amount of fiber.

But it’s not that difficult to incorporate a healthy amount of fiber into your diet. Sources of soluble fiber include apples, carrots, dried oranges and peas. You can get insoluble fiber from cauliflower, green beans, potato skins and from fruit and root vegetable skins.

If you’re on the early stages of Dr. Mercola’s no-grain diet, your intake of grains, fruits and vegetables will be significantly reduced and you may struggle to meet the optimum daily fiber intake. You can try taking a quality fiber supplement to help you compensate.

Mercola recommends Fiber Harmony Organic Psyllium, which is certified 100% organic by the USDA and is guaranteed to provide your daily soluble and insoluble fiber needs. This premium product is available in four fantastic varieties: Organic Psyllium Whole Husk, Chocolate, Orange and Peach.

Why You Should Avoid Aspartame

Aspartame, more popularly known by the brand names Equal and NutraSweet, is one of the first artificial sweeteners.

At first glance, artificial sweeteners may seem like a heaven sent for diabetics, dieters and the health conscious because artificially-sweetened products are marketed as low calorie and sugar-free.

More than 6,000 products containing aspartame, including soda, gum, desserts, chewable vitamins, gelatin and tabletop sweeteners, are sold in over 100 countries and consumed by over 250 million people around the world.

Did you know, however, that aspartame may actually cause weight gain instead of helping promote weight loss? Aspartic acid and phenylaline – the two main ingredients of aspartame – stimulate the production of insulin and leptin, which signals your body to store fat.

But weight gain would not sound bothersome compared to the other possible side effects that come with aspartame consumption. Aspartame accounts for more reports of adverse reactions than all other foods and food additives combined.

Aspartic acid and phenylaline are amino acids, which, when broken down by your body into their free forms, produce neurotoxic effects such as dizziness, headaches, mental confusion, migraines and seizures.

The aspartame you consume, from a can of diet soda for instance, will ultimately be fully absorbed by your body. Ten percent of aspartame’s metabolic product, methanol, can spontaneously break down into the carcinogenic chemical formaldehyde, which is associated with an increase risk of breast and prostate cancer.

Also, data from the National Cancer Institute showed that there was a 10 percent increase in malignant brain cancer in 1985 – two years after aspartame-sweetened diet beverages hit the market.

Young women who drink large quantities of aspartame-based diet drinks have been found to be at risk of developing alioblastoma, astrocytoma and primary lymphoma – three specific types of brain cancer.

There is also evidence that women of childbearing age who consumed aspartame during their pregnancies were delivering babies with an increased risk of brain and spinal cord cancer.

These are the reasons why aspartame and other artificial sweeteners have no place in Dr. Joseph Mercola’s weight loss program, the no-grain diet.

If you’re fond of consuming products laced with artificial sweeteners, this could probably be traced to your cravings for sweet foods and beverages.

The no-grain diet will help you kick the grain and sugar habit which has been causing the ups and downs of your weight management issues without having to resort to artificial sweeteners.

Cravings often have emotional components which also need to be addressed. Dr. Mercola recommends the Meridian Tapping Technique (MTT), also known as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), for this purpose.

Keep Your Gut Healthy with Probiotics and the No-Grain Diet

"Death begins in the colon.” Has a morbid ring to it but it’s close to the truth. Coroners often encounter colons which are almost 80 percent clogged with waste when they perform their autopsies.

According to independent U.K. organization Royal Society of Medicine, gastrointestinal tract infection leads to 90 percent of all chronic diseases.

You are exposed to countless of toxins and chemicals every day through the air you breathe, and in particular, the food you eat, the water you drink and the pharmaceutical drugs you take. You are giving your gut the heavy burden of having to process harmful substances it was never meant to process, such as artificial sweeteners, flavorings, sedatives and other toxic offenders.

Several of these toxic substances are highly active and can produce profound effects, even at very small quantities. The cumulative effect of these poisons is an unhealthy body and serious disease.

For example, a study conducted by UCLA researchers links exposure to maneb and paraquat, two pesticides used to protect dry beans, potatoes and tomatoes, to Parkinson’s disease.

Aside from being contaminated with pesticides and other hazardous chemicals, conventionally-grown produce tends to have lesser nutrients.

Eating “regular” beef, chicken and fish, on the other hand, also has its share of risks. Beef and chicken may contain antibiotics and growth hormones, while a lot of the fish available on the market today are caught off mercury-polluted waters.

The no-grain diet helps you take good care of your gut by emphasizing the importance of consuming organic fruits and vegetables and choosing healthy meat, including grass-fed beef, organic poultry and mercury-free fish.

Organic foods are “gentler” on your gastrointestinal tract because they contain less (or no) pesticides and provide higher levels of vitamins and minerals.

Most people also don’t know that 80 percent of the immune system lives in the gastrointestinal tract. That is why your gut is counting on you to keep it healthy, for your own sake.

For Dr. Joseph Mercola, taking a quality probiotics supplement is a simple and effective way to help maintain the balance between the good and bad bacteria in your intestinal tract.

Good bacteria began “colonizing” your gut the moment after your birth, with the first immune-building bacteria “settlers” coming from your mom’s breast milk, Dr. Mercola explains.

As you grow older, however, poor diet and lifestyle choices gradually poison your gut, feeding the growth of bad bacteria.

When the delicate balance between the good and bad bacteria in your gut is disturbed by antibiotics, an inadequate and flawed diet, environmental toxins and other foreign invaders, it can lead to digestive problems and stomach illness. Recurring gastrointestinal disturbances can even result to more serious conditions such as Crohn’s disease and colon cancer.

To help you avoid these problems, Mercola recommends New and Improved Complete Probiotics, a specially-formulated probiotic supplement containing 10 good bacteria strains. This probiotic powerhouse contains almost 66 billion beneficial bacteria in every capsule, helping you maintain the ratio of good to bad bacteria in your gut, supports normal immune response, enhances the breakdown of toxins, and promotes appropriate bowel transit times.

Aside from helping keep your gut healthy, New and Improved Complete Probiotics helps support the production of B vitamins and vitamin K, promote mineral absorption, support protein and carbohydrate digestion, produces lactic acid to support digestive function and colon pH balance, helps maintain healthy serum lipid and blood pressure levels, and even helps promote oral health.

A clean and normal gut means a healthier and happier you. Death doesn’t have to begin in the colon if you decide to take control of your health. The simple act of taking a probiotics supplement can greatly enhance your life.